SEATTLE, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- VLST Corp, a Seattle-based biotechnology company focused on the development of therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, today announced the appointments of Consuelo M. Blosch, M.D. as Vice President of Clinical and Regulatory and Dan Allison, Ph.D, as Senior Director of Therapeutic Design.

Blosch joins VLST from the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI), where she served as administrative director of the BRI Clinical Research Program. There, she provided leadership oversight to investigators involved in more than 200 clinical trials. Prior to BRI, Blosch held director level positions at Immunex Corporation and NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. At Immunex, where she worked from 1992 to 1998, Blosch directed the soluble receptor program, participating in the study design and overseeing the monitoring for clinical trials including those for ENBREL. At NPS, she directed a global research program for a recombinant human parathyroid hormone for the treatment of osteoporosis. Blosch received an M.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Allison joins VLST from ICOS Corporation, where he worked from 1992 to 2007, and most recently served as Senior Director, Production Development. At ICOS, Allison was responsible for engineering antibodies and other proteins used in clinical studies and also directed the development of microbial and mammalian expression systems used to produce those proteins. Prior to ICOS, Allison worked at Genencor International. Allison received a Ph.D. from the Genetics Department at the University of Washington and carried out post- doctoral studies in yeast cell biology at the Biozentrum in Basel, Switzerland and in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Washington.

"Consuelo's vast experience in the implementation, direction and design of clinical trials will be truly invaluable to VLST as we begin to advance our novel product candidates toward clinical development," said Martin Simonetti, President and Chief Executive Officer of VLST. "In addition, Dan brings significant protein engineering expertise that will guide the design of our therapeutic candidates. We are pleased to have such talented individuals join our team and look forward to their contributions."

About VLST

VLST Corporation is a privately held biotechnology company dedicated to the streamlined discovery and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune disorders. The VLST approach combines novel bioinformatics and cutting-edge proteomics to provide a rapid and rational approach to identifying new targets for the development of novel biologic therapies. The process used to identify clinically relevant targets also provides a path to developing biologic molecules that can be used for target validation studies. Such an approach offers the opportunity to improve the prioritization of product candidates and reduce costs by improving the clinical success rate. The VLST discovery platform has primary applications for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, lupus and diabetes. For more information, please visit http://www.vlstcorp.com.